An Open Letter to Michael Vick

Dear Michael Vick;

Congratulations on your reinstatement to the NFL. And while I personally do not agree with the League's decision and am one of those who believe you lost the privilege to work in the NFL the moment you began your 6+ year-long operation of your interstate dog fighting ring involving abuse, torture and execution of dogs, with portions involving drugs and gambling, I am willing to accept the Commissioner's decision to allow you back into the league. I, along with millions of others, hope you make the most of this incredible gift you've been given - your "second chance" if you will - as if you'd been working for my company I can guarantee you that you would not be welcomed back. Ever again.

And so here you are, on the threshold of rejoining the league, to suit up once again with some NFL franchise willing to accept the onslaught of protests, press and angry fans who are not so ready to forgive, let alone forget. And I'm sure you can't wait to get started again - to sign what will likely be a league-minimum contract of $595,000 (more than many will make in 10 years of work) that will begin to get you back onto the road of financial recovery.

So here's some friendly advice.

Take a year off.

You are now able to return to the league, but maybe it's best that you don't. Take the high road, and prove to all of us that your heart is in the right place. That it's not about the money. How?

After you apologized to the judge, your family and your children at your federal sentencing hearing on December 10, Judge Hudson stated: "I think you should have apologized also to the millions of young people who look up to you."

This is your chance.

Go out and start an urban youth league, to help troubled kids find the joy of athletics. You said in a 2001 interview with the Newport News Daily Press that when you were 10 or 11, "I would go fishing even if the fish weren't biting, just to get out of there" and away from the violence and stress of daily life in the projects. Go help kids find the escape you found. Earn their trust back. And show the world the new and improved Michael Vick.

And while you're taking this season off to do good things in your community, why don't you take a little time to get to know your three children - especially your youngest who was 3 months old when you were caught and sent away. Life in the NFL has a way of keeping families apart for much of the season - all the more reason for you to spend this next year with your family, rather than your teammates. I'm sure your children would be thrilled to have you put them first in your life - at least for the next 12 months - and just think of what a great example you'd be for other fathers out there. "Family first" could become your new catch-phrase - and you'd be backing it up by actually putting your family first. My little ad agency would even be happy to print up t-shirts for you if you wanted to wear that slogan and spread the word to others - just let me know.

And yes, I think we all understand the financial stress your bankruptcy is currently causing you, but don't underestimate the monetary potential of the talk show circuit, the press, and even a CNN documentary where you could finally tell your entire story - in all of it's horrific details - to let the world see exactly what you did so we all can try to learn something from it. Speak up, and I think you'll find a world of us eager to listen - as the truth has a way of cutting through everything else.

In fact, if the money is the only reason why you feel playing this season in the NFL is more important than helping the community, earning the trust and respect back from people of all ages, spending time with your own children, and helping expose the nightmarish evils of dogfighting, then I'd be more than willing to attempt to start a "Help Michael Vick Take the Year Off" fund, where people could donate $10 to your cause - to keep you off the field this season so you can focus your energies in areas that would benefit FAR more from your presence, skills and determination. Just imagine if we're able to find 1 million people willing to donate $10 each - you'd be well on your way to financial recovery. And something tells me we might even find people willing to donate much more. So again, just let me know as I'd be more than happy to start that ball rolling for you. In fact, I've even gone so far as to purchase a few url's for a site that we could make donation-ready within a few days if you approved of the idea, where all monies would go directly towards helping pay off any financial obligation you may have so you could stay focused. I'm not sure which url would be best though, so I'd love your input:

www.helpmichaelvicktaketheyearoff.com
www.taketheyearoff.com
www.vickvacation.com

We own all three, so let me know which you'd prefer to go with as they each have their merits.

Think of all the good you could do, right now, at this moment in time, while off of the field. And then, next year, after you've had 12 months to show the world what you're actually capable of, you'd be coming back to a world of fandom that would very likely welcome you back with open arms.

So go ahead, take the next 12 months and focus on things that should REALLY be important to you right now, after over 2 years of prison time. Because the NFL - and many of us fans - can wait until you're good and ready.

– Jim Olen

Through Hell and Back: A Retrospective

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(NOTE: For some reason, Posterous isn't showing the entire post, so please click here to read the complete story.)

Yes, this past Wednesday officially marked two months since the fires took our home last November 14th. Hard to believe. Seems like its been a year at least.

Honestly, it's been a very hard thing for me to talk about since that night of raining embers and 70+ mile per hour wind gusts, and even today my heartbeat skips when I hear a helicopter overhead, or the wind blows a little heavier than normal. But writing about it seems to be - and has been - a lot easier, and Twitter became not only a life-line to our friends and family through the ordeal, but also therapy for me ever since I began tweeting as the flames approached our neighborhood.

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So I thought this would be a good time to organize my thoughts and get the whole thing down on paper as best I can.

Yes, in October we had a scare with fires that came literally right up to our back door from the east (see "Happy Hellish Monday" below) - and no, this is not that same story retold. Its a second tale, spun only a few weeks later, where a new series of fires approached from the west. And this time, as if coming back to finish what it had started, these fires would not be denied.

Yes, we lost the house. Burned to the ground, despite my best efforts. But my wife, her mom (who was visiting from Nigeria at the time), our German Shepherd Zulu and I are all fine, healthy, and for that we are forever grateful.

Although I now have some memories that will forever be burned into my mind - pun intended.

A little of the story for you, if you weren't one of the many who were following our harrowing experience back in November through my Twittering...

November 14th was an uncharacteristically windy day. Gusts up to 70 mph had been hammering our area of Sylmar, even tearing a piece of our neighbor's roof off of his car-port and sending it flying into our driveway. But we'd had windy days before, so aside from the noise it caused as the evening went on, we really thought nothing of it.

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Around 10:30pm we received a call from my brother (living in Irvine) that he had seen on television that there were fires raging in our area of Sylmar, and that he wanted to make sure we were OK. My wife and I hadn't been watching TV, and so we looked outside to find that, yes, flames were stretched across the tops of the mountains behind our neighborhood, but were apparently moving in a westwardly direction and away from our home. We'd been through this drill a month earlier (see earlier post), so while we began getting our things in order for an evacuation, we never really believed we'd be gone for more than a day should we be forced to leave the area. And so, while my wife gathered up only the most critical things we'd need to take with us, I spent much of my time outside, videotaping the fires, chatting with the neighbors, and watching the fire trucks all head to a Park that was threatened about a mile from our home.

I have to admit that I have still not been able to bring myself to watch that videotape, and wonder when the day will come that I can gather myself together in order to relive those hours. Because somewhere around 2am, the winds suddenly shifted dramatically, and sent the fires raging back up and over the tops of the mountains towards our little cul de sac and our home with the 270-degree view of the mountains. I kid you not when I say that it was a matter of 15 minutes between the fires being almost a mile away and when they were nearly on top of us. 70 mph winds will do that, apparently.

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As the fires began to get dangerously close, my wife, her mother and I stood in our driveway, watching and waiting for the moment when we knew it was time for us to go. Helicopters were roaring overhead, the wind was gusting all around us, the two cars were packed with the bare essentials, and we were just waiting for that moment.

It came in a hailstorm of embers, the size of pine cones, flying horizontally at us at 70mph. I felt as though we were in a disaster movie, as it was literally raining fire down upon us. From that moment on, we were moving, and moving quickly. Final things were thrown into the cars, and Zulu - who had been in his crate for much of the time - was grabbed and ushered into the backseat of my wife's car in what must have been a total time lapse of 2 minutes. And with the embers still falling all around us, I jumped in my SUV and followed my wife (in her car), her mom and Zulu down our driveway, out of our cul de sac and away from the neighborhood. There was smoke all around and falling ash (thank goodness for my wife's foresight of having bought paper ventilator masks after the prior fire we went through), not to mention people scrambling everywhere to get away from the approaching fire. In truth though, it was organized chaos, as people filed into the exodus of automobiles with a semblance of calm and respect for others. Everyone just wanted to get away, but no one did it at any other's expense. Which was reassuring in a lot of ways.

We drove about 1/2 mile away, down our hill and back up the side of the next (our home backs up against a dry riverbed), so that we could still see our home and neighborhood from the heights of the neighboring hill. We parked our cars (along with what must have been hundreds of others) on the side of the road, and while my wife tried to calm both her mother and Zulu, I stood among the displaced crowds and watched the flames creep closer and closer to our home. But the smoke was growing thicker and the distance began to make it very hard to see what was really going on back at the house...

There was no way I could stand there and do nothing

My wife, her mom and Zulu were safe, so I told them to stay put (so that we didn't get separated) and I retuned to the house. I remember driving back into the neighborhood and into walls of black smoke, as police cars shone beams of light at me to make me stop and turn around - but my heart was racing and the adrenaline was pumping more than ever - and they were going to have to run me off the road to get me to stop.

I remember thinking to myself as I sped through their pseudo blockades, "Sue me."

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Our cul de sac was for the most part deserted as I blasted my truck up our driveway. And as I pulled up to the house, I saw little fires everywhere. Plants and bushes had become tiki torches in their pots, and little piles of embers lay scattered around the property - in the driveway, in the yard, in the garden - so that it seemed like I'd driven into a satanic ritual of sorts. The home itself seemed fine and unscathed, but the embers were still raining down whenever a gust of wind kicked up, so I turned the SUV around in the driveway - pointing away from the home (for a quick getaway if needed) - jumped out and went straight for the garden hoses.

We actually had three hoses stationed around the house, and I still find it hard to believe that I'd actually had the foresight (prior to things getting out of hand earlier in the night) to uncoil them from their racks and stretch them all out along the ground. Looking back on it, I'm not sure why I did it - but as I raced to turn the water on full blast, it was an unbelievably welcomed sight to see the hoses all ready-to-go.

I spent the next 20 minutes or so dousing little fires everywhere, even spending a solid 2 minutes (at that time, 2 minutes seemed like an eternity) dousing the lower section of a pine tree that had caught fire between our home and our neighbors. I remember thinking how bad I'd feel if this fire hit their home as I shot water through our bushes onto their tree - kind of a funny thought now that I look back on it. But every 20 seconds or so, the wind would gust and I'd find myself diving behind the house to shield myself from the flying balls of flame, and new fires would spring up almost as quickly as I could put them out. Eventually I had to keep moving around the house, shifting from hose to hose, chasing the little fires one by one, and trying to stay ahead of them as best as possible.

Through all of this, I kept glancing at the house and feeling a huge sense of optimism that all was going to be fine, as there wasn't a single mark on the home. Our house is surrounded by gravel (we have a grass-free lot) so there was really not a lot to burn (aside from the potted plants scattered around the property, the garden and the hedges). So from my perspective, as long as I could keep the flames from the house, all would be fine. Smokey, but fine.

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By this time it was likely around 3am (I'd lost sense of time), and the sky was ablaze in red and black hues. Smoke was everywhere and the whipping wind on top of roaring helicopters was all you could hear, drowning out any sirens that were certainly wailing in the distance. The fire had shifted so quickly that the fire department still hadn't been able to move from their position up at the local Park, and there was no one anywhere that I could see. Not that I was really looking. I was so focused, moving methodically around the house, and trying not to let the situation throw me off my game. I knew that as long as I kept my cool and remained determined, that at the very least, I could hold this off until the fire trucks arrived. I had my system down. I'd douse whatever flames I could. I'd hear the wind begin to blow. I'd duck quickly around the side of the house. The embers would fly by at breakneck speed, landing in plants and bushes and trees. And then I'd jump back out and start putting out whatever flames I could.

Nothing was getting by me, and I was slowly getting ahead of the new fires - having put out more fires than were starting up. Before I knew it, I was running from new fire to new fire - dousing, dodging, dousing, dodging - and oddly, I began to feel a little giddy - as if this was kind of fun - since I'd clearly had this under control. Don't get me wrong, I always had a huge sense of fear and worry - as if at any moment the delicate balance could shift on me - but I distinctly recall feeling as though I'd made it past the hard part and that all I needed to do was to hold the fort until the cavalry arrived.

(Cue the foreboding music)

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I had worked my way round to the fire-side of the house (making it a little harder to dodge the embers that were now coming directly at me) and happened to glance up at the roof to make sure no embers or flying debris had settled up on top of the house.

And it was then that I saw the flicker.

Above the whipping wind, helicopter fly-bys and distant wailing sirens, you could have heard the sound of my heart hitting the ground at that moment. Because there in the dark, through the small ventilation slats of the tiny attic window above me, came the distinctive sight of flickering light coming from within. It started very subtly - so subtle that I nearly missed it when I first caught sight of it. But there was no doubt after I looked closer that there was fire inside the small attic area of our home.

If I hadn't already been filled with adreneline, then it was at that moment that the gauge went through the roof. Knowing the ladder was in the garage, I dropped the hose I'd been holding and broke into a sprint around the house to the front door as we'd lost power earlier in the night and there was no way I could get the garage door open from outside. Fumbling for my house keys in the dark was when I literally had to stop and take a deep breath as to not lose any precious moments - then after finding the right key and blindly opening the door, I was greeted by a dark house filled with thick smoke. I never even blinked, racing through the house and into the garage, fumbling for the ladder, finding it, and then running with it through the kitchen towards the sliding glass doors that open onto our back porch.

I admit it - for a split second I almost didn't even stop to open the sliding doors, knowing I had a battering ram in my hands. But a cooler head prevailed as I stopped, slid the door open, and raced out and around to the ventilated window side of the house.

Getting the ladder from the garage probably took me all of 90 seconds, but by the time I got it up and in place and began to scale it with trusty hose in hand, I could see the flicker had grown in size. I distinctly remember my arm outstretched in front of me, shooting water into the window as I climbed the ladder, knowing every drop would count. And as I got my face up close to the vents to look inside, it became suddenly clear that this was no flicker. At least not any more. The heat coming from within said plenty.

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The fire had spread across the entire floor of the small attic, and was crawling up the walls. I jammed the hose as far in through the slats as I could to get as much water onto the flames as possible, but the heat that the fire was putting out would only allow me to reach so far in - and my small little stream of water suddenly didn't look so powerful against the rapidly growing flames. The flames rolled across the floor and up the walls like liquid sheets in the wind, and I remember wondering if I was helping or hurting the fire with the water I was pouring onto it. Because it kept growing, right before my eyes. But believe it or not, for a few moments there, I still believed I could handle it. I recall thinking to myself that this was going to be a challenge, but nothing I couldn't get back under control.

My hand with the hose was wedged and stretched through the slats of the tiny window, but I was having trouble getting water around to the corners - so I began to think about how I was going to kick in the window to give myself better access.

I think it was when the flames engulfed the ceiling of the attic and a puff of flames spit at me through the window slats that my spirit finally broke. There would be no kicking in any window, as it really wouldn't be necessary. I felt my shoulders drop and my will fail me as the heat suddenly intensified and forced me to recoil from the window. I couldn't believe how hot the fire was, and it was only then that I began to think of my safety, perched on the edge of the roof by the ventilated window that was now coughing out flames as if it was choking on the smoke that had engulfed the night.

Somehow I fell off the ladder trying to scramble back down to the ground, although I landed relatively softly on my back in the gravel, and remember hoping that no one had been watching that boneheaded tumble. Funny, the things we think of during such hectic moments.

It's really impossible to put into words the sense of failure and defeat that I felt as I stood there looking up at that little window of our attic, realizing that even if the fire trucks were to roll up the driveway right then, that it was still too late. Anyone could have seen that, especially when the flames began to break through the roof and lick at the sky.

The flames kept belching out of the window, so I slowly moved back around to the driveway side of the house to make sure I didn't get caught by any stray flames, let alone embers that were still flying through the air (even though I'd been completely oblivious to them since things went south.) And I kept waiting for some gas line to blow, or glass to explode outwards, or something dramatic to happen. But nothing did. The fire was eerily quiet, and the only real noise came from the wind & helicopters as I watched the house begin to die.

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I had a moment of realization when I knew it was over, and I remember bending over with my hands on my knees and saying expletives over and over to myself. I think I was trying to convince myself that it was time to leave and get back to my wife, but I found myself frozen - knowing that the moment I got back in my truck and drove off, I was conceding defeat. I think that was my worst moment through it all, knowing that I was going to have to tell the woman who I love more than anything in the world that I'd failed to save her home.

Ironically, it was then that a figure dressed in yellow fire-fighting gear came up the driveway towards me. I thought he was with the fire department, but he ended up being with the Associated Press, and lovingly captured my worst moment on film for me to forever remember. We chatted a bit and he told me that he'd seen a lot of these fires in his line of work, and that while he knew I didn't want to hear it, this one was a lost cause. I'd already realized it, but it actually helped to have someone else confirm it for me. Looking back on it now, it was pretty funny when he asked me for my card as I was gathering up my strength to turn and finally leave. There we were, as our house was burning down behind me, and I'm swapping business cards.

OK, maybe funny isn't the right word.

It was clearly time to go, as much as I didn't want to throw in the towel. But I took one last deep breath and got into my SUV. The last thing I remember is looking back at the flames stretching through the roof and into the sky as I drove back down the driveway. The fire trucks had finally arrived in our cul de sac and were blocking the street, so I had to drive over a neighbor's front lawn to get out of there. It was very sobering to know that I wouldn't be coming back there for a long, long while.

And as I headed back to my wife, the only thing I could think about was the fact that I'd left both the front door and the sliding glass door in back - wide open. And I actually thought - if just for a brief moment - of going back to close and lock them.

Yeah, I know.

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As I said before, the hardest part for me throughout the entire ordeal was going back to my wife and having to tell her that I'd lost the house. Fortunately (I think) she knew before I said a word. And she was the strong one from that moment onward, and set about figuring out what we were to do next with a step-by-step plan. Within minutes we were back in our cars and heading away from the crowds and fires and toward a hotel room where we could rest, regroup, and clean ourselves up before figuring out our next steps. I don't really remember much from the moment we all left the hillside and began to head towards a hotel, as I think I fell into a slight state of shock.

My wife's mother - god bless her soul - was beside herself through all of this, and I'm so sorry that she had to go through it with us. But my wife kept by her side at all times, and by the time we got to a Best Western in Van Nuys somewhere around 4:30am, I think she had begun to relax a bit.

We got an hour or so of sleep, surprisingly. Although as we had to sneak Zulu into the hotel, his occasional bark as we were "sleeping" would send us scampering to clamp his mouth shut ;-)

Around 7am, we were watching the news and as reporters were walking around destroyed homes from the fires, we clearly saw the remnants of our home in the footage - and any last rays of hope of there still being something there left were gone. But I do believe it was a blessing, as it's much better that we knew our home's fate, rather than have been hoping and wondering for days until finally getting back up there to see for ourselves.

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We moved into the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles for the next three weeks, as they surprisingly accept dogs, and began the slow process of piecing our lives back together. It was a few days later, well after the fires had died and been brought under control that we went back to the site to survey the damage ourselves, despite knowing what we were to find.

Yes, "down to the ground" is the term that best describes it.

So as of this past Wednes day, it's been officially 2 months since it rained fire upon our home and our lives. And I think we're OK. We currently rent a nice little home in Shadow Hills and are in the process of finding an architect to help us rebuild. Our insurance company has been terrific, and has been more helpful and caring than we ever could have imagined. We are healthy and happy and have much to be thankful for, despite everything we went through. My wife and I still get a little anxious at night when the wind whips up a little too loudly (and I find myself glancing out towards the mountains to make sure they remain dark and quiet), and Zulu now has a thing for helicopters flying overhead, but that's about it. And in the end, I think we've become better people because of it all. We appreciate the little things more than we ever did before and don't seem to be stressing about unnecessary things. And the stuff that we lost... well, it was just stuff. This didn't break us, or make us feel any sense of "why me?" - but instead, made us stronger and brought us even closer together than we already were. We refuse to be beaten by this, and have pledged to ourselves that we will rise from the ashes like the phoenix - reborn from, yet forged by the fire.

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And so there you have it - the events laid out in just a little more detail than I was able to give during my Tweets and scattered cell phone photos during that crazy, crazy night. I swore to myself I'd write it all down one day, and I'm glad I was finally able to do so, as I'm hoping that someday soon all of this will begin to fade in my mind. And with a little luck, while I'll always remember that night, maybe I'll forget about some of the details. Because those are the things that still keep me up at night.

In a way, I suppose it was a cleansing. We didn't ask for it, but we got it - a stripping away of everything that ultimately doesn't matter in our lives, leaving us only with that which we can not live without: Hope. Friendship. Trust. And Love.

Happy Hellish Monday.

I've been asked by numerous people for this note I sent to friends & family today, recounting the madness surrounding the fires that came swooping down upon our home early this morning. So I thought this would be a good place to post it, despite it not really being a Dreamented Thought ;-) 

Happy Monday ;-) 

For those who weren't aware, my wife, Zulu and I went through a pretty hectic day today and I thought you'd be interested in the details. And fortunately I wanted to first let you know that things are OK and we're back in our home as of 3:00 this afternoon (although our neighborhood is still officially evacuated). I apologize for not being able to call you directly to give you updates, but hopefully we'll have a landline soon (cell phone is always a challenge for me here at home, though it works perfectly at work). We had no real way of communication throughout the day save for Twitter and texting - which I tried to use as much as possible and which, apparently, got word to most of you. 

Guess I can't say officially that Twitter saved my life, but it sure sounds good ;-)

I have to admit that we didn't really interpret Zulu's advanced warning system all that well, as we attributed his incessant barking all night long to the teething phase that he's currently going through and his absolute dislike of helicopters (which were buzzing all night long).

Little did we know that Zulu was actually saying, "Umm, excuse me, but do you smell something?"

Apparently the fires started last night a few miles away from us, and they were supposedly under control until the Santa Ana winds kicked up overnight and turned the small flames into a rip-roaring blaze. 

We awoke this morning around 6:00am to Zulu still barking up a storm at what my wife called "uncharacteristically heavy air traffic." But we just pulled our pillows over our heads and prayed for another hour or so of sleep before starting the new week. Around 7:00am there came a pounding on our door where a police officer – who must have scaled our gate or fence (for the gate was closed) – was quickly telling us that there was a mandatory evacuation going on in our neighborhood. My wife asked him why and he said, "because your backyard is on fire." Which it basically was:

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This was our first view of what Monday had in store for our neighborhood. I think both of us were in something of a state of shock as it wasn't until much later that we realized just how hellish everything was all around us. Everywhere you looked firefighters were descending upon our 'hood, helicopters were strafing the hills with water, and people were running in and out of their homes and stuffing things into their cars. 

Interesting to be put in a position of great anxiety and rushed determination where you must decide exactly what to take with you and what will be left behind. For us, we just threw a bunch of clothes into two bags as well as wrapped up our computers, grabbed a tub of kibble for Zulu and threw it all in the back of our t wo cars.

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I remember feeling the ash in my throat as I began to lose my voice breathing in the smoke - still moving in surprisingly ordered fashion and in a sort of packing dance with my wife - all the while Zulu sat in his crate, still barking at all of the commotion. 

This time I knew exactly what he was saying: "See? Told ya so!" 

As we were finishing packing up the cars, the fire chief came onto our property and told us that they would like to use our property as a place to "make a last stand," stating that we had the best clearance (we'd hired a crew some months back to fire-proof our backyard to up to 300 feet) and view of the fires thanks to our back door literally butting right up to mountains - as well as the fire. I suppose you couldn't ask for a better tidbit of info - knowing that should the fire get too close, our home would be where they all gathered to fight it. 

He then asked if we could leave the garage door unlocked in case they needed to use it as shelter.

I think that was when I began to get a glimpse of just how serious this was. Anytime a fireman asks you if they can use your garage as shelter if need be, you know its time to get out and let them do their jobs. 

As I was heading back to to the house after packing a few extra things in the cars, here was the view:

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The fire basically came up and over the ridge of the mountain - in a line from left to right - and we were told that, at times, the flames were up to 20 feet high. 

In the end, it probably took us 30 minutes to get ourselves out of the house, into our cars and headed down the hill towards the highway. This was the last thing I saw before leaving.

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We had no idea where we were going, but I realized very quickly - as my wife's car began to get separated from mine amidst all of the hectic traffic - that we first and foremost needed to stay together in one car. About 3 miles from our house and adjacent to the freeway, we parked in a Denny's lot (where my wife & Zulu piled into my SUV) to gather ourselves, and listen to the radio reports pouring in. Not to mention to try to figure out our next steps (My wife was already looking forward to some zzzzz's at the Langham Huntington Resort that is about an hour from us).

But as we sat there and everything all around us was getting more and more frenetic as the morning moved onward, we started to think about the possibility that we might not be able to get back into our neighborhood for a couple of days (assuming there was something to go back to) - not to mention that just listening to the developments on the radio was not making us feel very comforted. And since we knew the hills in our area well (thanks to Zulu walks), we decided to work our way through back roads, back to the general area of our home, and found a spot high in the hills where we could watch the fire and the activity buzzing all around it first hand.

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Fortunately, the winds were with us throughout the morning, as they ended up blowing the fire south west instead of due west (which would have been very bad for us) - and by 2:00-ish the flames had subsided dramatically as the fire had burned itself right down to the bottom of the mountains where the fire fighters had built a line of 10-foot high dirt mounds to stop it.

The timing seemed to be perfect, as two other fires had popped up elsewhere in the general area (5 to 10 miles away) and many of the firefighters around our neighborhood moved to fight the new flames. Which allowed us to make our move and slip back into our home and survey what little damage had been done. We were very fortunate - as was our entire neighborhood - as the only damage was caused by soot and ash that seemed to have found its way into every nook and cranny. Below is a photo of the fire working its way down to the very bottom of the mountains - where it finally went out - at least on the surface. 

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They say we're not out of the woods yet, as things have a way of occasionally kicking up again until all of the embers deep beneath the surface are finally extinguished - which could take a few days. In fact, as we look out back right now, there's a large plume of smoke rising from the other side of the mountains - which means there's more burning back out of our line of sight. But we're feeling pretty OK about everything now that we've had a chance to sit down and take all of it in. No question it could have been much worse and we were extremely fortunate to have been spared by the fires.

I can't imagine it having been able to get any closer than it did without turning this into a disaster for us. Our thoughts go out to those who are not yet out of the woods, as these fires are still raging all around this area.

And if they ask us to leave again, so be it. But for the time being, its the best feeling in the world just to be back in our home, together, and soot-free.